How Anxiety Can Cause Inflammation and What Foods to Avoid

 

Click HERE to Discover these 80 Keto-Friendly and Healthy Slow Cooker Recipes

How Anxiety Can Trigger Your Inflammation (Plus: What Foods to Avoid)

Anxiety is the most common mental disorder in the United States, impacting more than 40 million adults.

While some cases can be mild and short-lived, others can be debilitating, lasting for years, or transitioning into a chronic problem.

Anxiety is connected to a number of lifestyle, health, and dietary factors, but understanding the triggers and root causes can lead to more effective treatment.

What Is Anxiety?

Many people refer to situational stress or momentary tenseness as anxiety, and often the term “panic attack” can be loosely thrown around.

But for people living with generalized anxiety disorder or one of the other recognized anxiety diagnoses – like social anxiety disorder, specific phobias, or separation anxiety disorder – these terms have meaning that delves into a feeling that can be all-consuming, debilitating, and hard to comprehend by someone on the outside.

Anxiety can refer to numerous symptoms that can include:

• Nervousness
• Fear
• Apprehension
• Worrying
• Paranoia
• Feelings of being unsettled
• Trembling
• Upset stomach or nausea
• Diarrhea
• Headache
• Heart palpitations (which can increase anxiety over worries of heart attack)
• Numbness or pins and needle sensations in extremities
• Sweating or hot flashes
• Restlessness or restless legs
• Fatigue
• Poor concentration
• Irritability or mood swings
• Muscular aches and pains from tension
• Have trouble falling/staying asleep
• Being easily startled

While almost anyone can experience temporary feelings of anxiety before impactful events, important moments, tests, or the like, anxiety is considered to be problematic when it presents for numerous events within a person’s life, and when it begins to interfere in some way with normal function, including sleep disturbances, social anxiety, or self-care.

Bottom line: Anxiety is a legitimate disorder that can range from short-term to chronic, and can have wide-ranging symptoms that can be attributed to a number of other conditions.

What Causes Anxiety?

Anxiety can be caused by a number of different factors. Some of the more common triggers include:

• Chronic stress, including depression from stress
• Excessive serotonin production or activity
• Early life stress or pressure
• 24/7 connectivity online
• Genetic mutations
• Traumatic life events
• Financial problems
• Chronic pain

While the specific triggers for anxiety may differ from case to case, there seem to be some common groupings of anxiety triggers. But what actually takes these triggers and turns them into anxiety for some people and not others?

Beyond the potential causes for anxiety, there has to be a triggering event that is significant enough to spark a chronic problem. Even in cases of genetic tendency, something still has to cause the initial episode. Anxiety and inflammation feed into each other, making anxiety triggers worsen.

What many of the causative factors listed above have in common is inflammation.

Stress can increase inflammation within the body, and one of the common factors linking each condition together is stress. Stress can also take its toll on the body in other ways that don’t lead to anxiety, and certainly people can experience stress regularly without having chronic problems as a result.

Bottom line: Anxiety is caused by numerous factors, and many of the causes have underlying issues in common with chronic inflammation and stress. Anxiety is, however, an issue in and of itself and not simply a side effect of other problems.

Inflammation and Anxiety

The link between inflammation, anxiety, and even depression is well-documented.

Inflammation is the body’s response to injury, and it’s becoming increasingly understood that this injury doesn’t have to be purely physical. Mental and emotional stress or injury can spark inflammatory responses, too.

When inflammatory processes happen within the body, one of the first things to be affected is the gut and the microbiome. Stress produces inflammatory cytokines that can actually alter the way that the gut, brain, and nervous system respond. This can include the development of depression, anxiety, and leaky gut.

Once leaky gut is present, it can perpetuate cycles of anxiety due to disrupted microbial balances in the gut, toxins in the bloodstream, and poor absorption of nutrients.

Nutrient deficiency can have a significant role in the health of the nervous system, and deficiencies in nutrients like B vitamins or vitamin D can worsen anxiety issues. Leaky gut can perpetuate the cycles of anxiety.

While anxiety isn’t necessarily best addressed in only one specific way, a thorough healing approach will take gut health and inflammatory levels into account.

Following an anti-inflammatory diet protocol and reversing leaky gut could, at the very least, prevent anxiety conditions from continuing to worsen.

In some cases, gut health could be the primary trigger of anxiety, and a gut healing protocol could actually resolve anxiety in its own right.

While testing specifically for anxiety is difficult, if anxiety is present, there are a number of tests that can be done to determine the state of gut health. Specifically, tests that look at zonulin and lactulose levels, like the ELISA test, can help to determine the severity of leaky gut by looking at factors that actually control the level of gut permeability.

Inflammatory markers can also shed some light on the state of gut health that might be contributing to anxiety. Tests such as hs-CRP, or C-reactive protein, measure cytokines in the blood that are released by damaged or inflamed tissues, presenting a decent snapshot of the body’s inflammation levels.

Homocysteine is another test that measures the levels of this amino acid in the blood. When it’s elevated, it can indicate nutrient deficiencies that can be associated with chronic inflammation (like B12) as well as general inflammation.

Bottom line: Anxiety isn’t likely caused by inflammation alone, but measuring inflammatory levels can certainly help to spell out a more direct path to resolving the issue, especially when inflammatory and gut health issues are present.

Foods and Inflammation

An anti-inflammatory diet can look different in many cases, and there isn’t necessarily a one-size-fits all approach. While some common themes will emerge, like eating plenty of leafy greens and healthy fats, others will need to take an individualized approach to get to the root of their problem.

A basic anti-inflammatory diet will include plenty of:

• Bone broth
• Leafy greens
• Cruciferous vegetables
• Berries
• Salmon
• Chicken, especially thigh meat
• Beef
• Avocado
• Sweet potatoes
• Squash

Foods to avoid on an anti-inflammatory plan will include:

• Gluten and grains
• Dairy
• Beans and legumes
• Processed or refined foods
• Sugar, even in Paleo form
• Artificial sweeteners
• Preservatives
• Caffeine
• Alcohol

Food sensitivity and allergy play a huge role in inflammation and gut health. When foods that produce an immune response are consumed, they further perpetuate leaky gut, inflammation, and digestive upset or malabsorption.

In addition to foods that are specifically aggravating to an individual’s gut, there are also certain groups of foods that can be difficult to digest or which can exacerbate issues with leaky gut. These include grains, beans, legumes, and dairy products – food groups which are already excluded on a Paleo diet.

The Paleo diet has become a popular remedy for gut health woes, but even within the confines of a Paleo diet lies plenty of room for individualization.

Some individuals do best following an AIP diet, or the autoimmune Paleo protocol. This further eliminates known inflammatory foods like eggs, nuts, seeds, and nightshades (tomatoes, peppers, potatoes, and eggplants). Paleo is enough to fix gut health for some; others need a more strict AIP diet.

Others may do better eating super low carb Paleo, or ketogenic Paleo, while still others may thrive on a high vegetable Paleo diet that limits meat intake and promotes large quantities of the full rainbow of vegetables.

Addressing anxiety and gut health issues with diet is best done with the help of a qualified professional who understands both gut health and the underlying causes of anxiety and other mood disorders. In some cases, nutrient replacement with a supplement program can further decrease symptoms and speed gut health.

Please note that while diet can be very effective, if medical prescription therapy is needed, it’s important not to quit medication protocols that are managing anxiety or depression without the assistance of someone who is qualified to do so.

Watch this video – The Anxiety/Depression Diet: This Will Help

Bottom line: Nutrition can play a key role in reducing inflammation and combating anxiety, especially when you increase high-nutrient foods like leafy greens, berries, and salmon and reduce highly processed and sweetened foods.

3 Alternative Therapies to Address Anxiety

Many who suffer from anxiety turn to medication and diet to deal with their unpleasant symptoms, but there is also another category of support than can work together with other protocols or on its own: alternative therapy.

Acupuncture

Anxiety responds well to acupuncture and other Traditional Chinese Medicine protocols.  Acupuncture works to remove energy blockages, or “chi,” within the body.

There are specific anxiety points in the ear, wrist, and feet that acupuncturists will work with. While acupuncture may seem off-putting to anyone who has never tried it or who has a fear of needles, it is well worth the effort to give it a try.

Acupuncture needles are so tiny that they are barely felt, and if they are, it feels more like a tickle than a pricking of the skin. Sessions tend to last anywhere from 30-60 minutes, and I personally find them so relaxing that I often fall asleep and wake to find I am in a much calmer state of mind.

Yoga

Yoga, too, can be effective for the management of anxiety, either on its own or in addition to other methodologies. Even if you’re not a yoga pro, or you’re not flexible at all, working with an online program, a class, or even an app can start to produce positive results.

Yoga doesn’t have to look perfect. You just need to approach it with the mindset of doing the best that you can, and focusing on breathing well and achieving the positions as correctly as possible.

Exercise

Exercise other than yoga, such as aerobic or cardio exercise, can be beneficial as well, since it reduces overall inflammation within the body. Whatever the form of exercise you begin, regularity is what will produce positive results.

Walking a few miles after work, joining a fitness class three times per week, swimming in the mornings before work, or any other possible combination can all bring you closer to your health goals, and that can definitely include reducing anxiety and inflammation.

Summary

Ultimately, the protocol that is going to address anxiety best for someone is going to be specifically targeted at their individual needs. The original trigger or reason for developing chronic anxiety needs to be considered along with other existing health conditions, lifestyle factors, and genetic health.

Exploring different healing modalities like diet, lifestyle, exercise, and alternative therapies will often have a much more significant impact on anxiety than simply waiting for it to dissipate on its own.

Written by Aimee McNew

Author Bio:

Aimee McNew is a Certified Nutritionist who specializes in women’s health, thyroid problems, infertility, and digestive wellness. She ate her way back to health using a Paleo diet, lost 80 pounds, and had a healthy baby after numerous miscarriages. She focuses on simple nutrition practices that promote long-lasting results.

A lot of people have gotten results from the Keto diet, and enjoyed the foods that it has to offer. However, many of the people who are following this diet have a hard time finding the recipes that they need, especially ones that are quick and easy to complete.

Fortunately, Kelsey Ale, noticed this problem, and decided to do something about it. She’s found that making recipes in a slow cooker gives you meals which are not only delicious, but also take very little time to make. Mostly you just put a few simple ingredients in the slow cooker, and let it do the rest.

To find out more, click on – Keto Slow Cooker Cookbook

7 Ways for Managing Every Type of Workplace Stress

 

Click HERE to Discover these 80 Keto-Friendly and Healthy Slow Cooker Recipes

7 Ways to Reverse Every Type of Workplace Stress

I spent a decade after college working in high-pressure roles for fast growing startups and tech companies. I can recall days where I cried on my lunch break from the pressure. The workplace stress felt debilitating at times. If this sounds familiar, then you’re not alone.

According to a new study by the Harvard School of Public Health and NPR Radio, 43 percent of Americans say their job causes them stress, and 27 percent say this workplace stress affects their sleep. In Australia, 35 percent report having significant levels of stress in their lives, according to the Australian Psychological Society.

Research shows that the main causes of workplace stress are:

• Work overload and long hours
• Concerns about losing one’s job
• Difficulty in work relationships
• Lack of control and resources

If this resonates, I have good news for you! With a few minutes of mindfulness practice each day, you can be whistling while you work in no time.

I like to say that it’s a practice that allows you to observe everything happening within you and around you without judgement. It helps you understand how everything affects you and how you affect the world around you.

There’s a reason why Google, Oprah and countless new businesses are using mindfulness. It’s absolutely vital to living with more ease and happiness! I’m walking proof. Once I began practicing mindfulness regularly, my anxiety attacks stopped and my workplace stress lowered. I felt immediate improvements in my health and work became much more enjoyable.

Here are some simple ways you can use mindfulness to make all the difference in your week:

The 90/20 Rule

This sounds like a no-brainer, but many of us work more than 8-hour days and never take a break beyond lunch. This is the equivalent of driving your vehicle on low oil. It may get you to from point A to B, but you’ll eventually break down at some point.

Nathaniel Kleitman, a physiologist and sleep researcher, found that many people work best having 90 minutes of concentration followed by a 20-minute break. The easiest way to do this is to set an alarm or a calendar reminder. Find a way to prompt yourself to stop what you’re doing, get up and move around every so often.

While taking breaks, try to limit your online and social media usage. Aim for natural experiences that will stimulate your brain, like face-to-face conversations, walking in nature or doing some light exercise. This will clear your mind and give you some fresh air to relax. It’s like giving a gift to yourself – sometimes a short little break is all the support your mind-body system needs to get the job done.

The 5-Minute Workplace Stress Buster

This is a simple practice I call “Soothing Breath.” Whenever you’re feeling anxious, overwhelmed or nervous, take five minutes to try this. That’s all it takes to feel your nervous system return back to balance.

With your eyes open or closed, inhale for five full seconds and exhale for five seconds. Repeat this rhythm for five minutes. You can breathe through the nose or mouth. Experiment with what feels more relaxing.

Once your body’s natural relaxation response kicks in, you’ll feel more at ease, clear-headed and able to focus on the task at hand. As a testament to the legitimacy of this exercise, I tried it once after I was in a car accident and my body was shaking.

Within five minutes of this breathing, I calmed down enough to stop shaking. Now that’s powerful!

Shift Perspective

Mindfulness teaches us to observe the circumstances in our world non-judgmentally.

Instead of focusing on what is “right” or “wrong” about your work situation, start to ask yourself these questions: “What can I learn from this?”, “What is this (person/situation) teaching me?” and “How can I grow from this experience?”

As Shakespeare said: “There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so.”

Most everything in life can be considered neutral until we give it a label of “right” or “wrong.”

As we shift perspective and begin to look at the world through a lens of inquiry, we uncover hidden opportunities to grow – in ways that would have been impossible if we’d stayed flourishing in our pessimism.

Write Down 5 Things You’re Grateful For

Wouldn’t we all like to have our glass half full? Chances are, your glass is fuller than you realize! Because it’s so easy to fixate on what’s not going right, we often forget to recognize the positive aspects of our lives.

It’s human nature to be aware of obstacles, but when we overemphasize our attention on the problems, it’s like looking through a microscope. When our eyes are preoccupied with the issue in front of us, we miss the positive things all around us, and life starts to feel quite grim. List out what you’re grateful for every morning in a notebook. Just five things a day.

To remedy this, list out what you’re grateful for every morning in a notebook. Just five things a day. This practice will very quickly shift you into a positive mentality, where you’ll begin to consistently see the good things around you.

This alone will change your life.

An attitude of gratitude has a ripple effect. As you reprogram yourself to appreciate the small things, very quickly you’ll start feeling happier, and this happy state becomes a magnet for more wonderful events, people and circumstances to find you.

Email Mindfully

We’ve all been there before. You get an email that leaves a sour look on your face and tension in your chest, only to find out later – you completely misinterpreted their tone.

As humans, we’ve spent the last 200,000 years communicating largely in person. Much of our communication as a species relies on body language and tone of voice.

Both are entirely lost in email communications, which makes it a tricky art to communicate indeed. If you’re writing a difficult email, don’t push the send button until you’ve practiced the Soothing Breath technique.

When we’re feeling the workplace stress, we transmit it within our email language without realizing it. The remedy? If you’re writing a difficult email or feeling stressed, don’t push the send button until you’ve walked away from your desk for two to five minutes and practiced the Soothing Breath technique (above).

When you return to your computer, re-read the email as if you were the recipient reading it for the first time. Does any of the language need revision? Can any of it be misinterpreted?

Ask yourself this question: “What needs to be said for the highest good of completing this task AND creating a positive relationship here?”

Instead of Multitasking, Try Prioritizing

We tend to think doing multiple things at the same time is the key to getting things done, but there’s a new research that reveals multitasking is actually making our jobs harder! Uh-oh!

In an interview with NPR, Clifford Nass, a Psychology Professor at Stanford University, says: “Today’s non-stop multitasking actually wastes more time than it saves. There’s evidence it may be killing our concentration and creativity too.”

He shares: “The research is almost unanimous, which is very rare in social science, and it says that people who chronically multitask show an enormous range of deficits.

They’re basically terrible at all sorts of cognitive tasks, including multitasking.” Start by doing one thing at a time. Next, prioritize each task with an A, B or C in front of it.

So how do we fix this? Start by doing one thing at a time. Benjamin Franklin was a master at prioritizing tasks on a to-do list. Considering how much he accomplished in his lifetime, I think it’s a safe bet to take this route.

An easy method is to write out an exhaustive list of all the things you need to accomplish. Next, prioritize each task with an A, B or C in front of it. Put an A next to things that are super urgent and need to be done today, B next to slightly less urgent tasks and C next to tasks even less urgent. Try and aim for under ten As, if possible.

Next, number all your As in order of importance or urgency: A1, A2, A3 and so on. Now do the same with the Bs (B1, B2, B3) and Cs.

Once you have your priorities straight, set a timer for how long you’d like to spend on the first task, A1. Put all other media aside. Do your best to stay focused on the task at hand and take breaks. Then marvel when you find this improves your workplace stress levels and productivity!

Meditate, Period

Anyone can meditate, regardless of age, history or beliefs. There are thousands of studies proving meditation is helpful for increasing our concentration and mental clarity, improving our mood, health, stress and overall well-being. From personal experience, meditating changed my life and my students’ lives in powerful ways.

A simple way to get started is to sit upright in a back-supported chair. Plant your feet on the ground and rest your palms on your lap. Your eyes can be closed or open with a low gaze. Allow your attention to rest on your breathing.

Now let your muscles relax and invite your breath to restore a sense of calm in your mind and body. Without judging them, just notice the sounds, thoughts and emotions that are present. Become a curious witness to everything while keeping a gentle awareness on your breath.

Practice this for five minutes at first. Eventually over a few weeks, work your way to ten minutes, then 15 and 20. Many long-time practitioners meditate for 20 minutes twice a day – once in the early morning and once in the early evening before dinner.

Still looking for ways for managing every type of workplace stress? Watch this video-7 Ways to Manage Stress At Work

The Bottom Line

With mindfulness, we learn to accept what we can and cannot control. We discover that we can’t always control what life throws at us, but we can control ourselves, how we respond to our circumstances, and how we choose to show up in the world.

Written by Leah Santa Cruz

Author Bio:

Leah is a Meditation and Mindfulness Coach, who specializes in helping women in the workforce lead joyous lives. Her background in modern Psychology and neuroscience alongside trainings in ancient practices allows her to provide useful tools that actually work and are easy to integrate within a busy lifestyle. Her mission is to help women uncover more love, joy, harmony and intimacy within themselves and with others, the foundation for all happiness. You can find out more about Leah’s meditation coaching here.

A lot of people have gotten results from the Keto diet, and enjoyed the foods that it has to offer. However, many of the people who are following this diet have a hard time finding the recipes that they need, especially ones that are quick and easy to complete.

Fortunately, Kelsey Ale, noticed this problem, and decided to do something about it. She’s found that making recipes in a slow cooker gives you meals which are not only delicious, but also take very little time to make. Mostly you just put a few simple ingredients in the slow cooker, and let it do the rest.

To find out more, click on – Keto Slow Cooker Cookbook

6 Ways to Lose Weight If You’re Genetically Fat

 

Click HERE to Discover these 80 Keto-Friendly and Healthy Slow Cooker Recipes

Is Obesity Genetic? 6 Ways to Lose Weight If You Have Fat-Promoting Genes

You might be genetically disposed to obesity. Luckily, there are things that you can do to influence your body in positive and lasting ways.

Is obesity something that you can control, or is it genetic? The real answer lies somewhere in the middle. While genetics can influence our weight and many other tendencies, epigenetics – or how our lifestyles and environments interplay with our genes – has the biggest impact of all.

The good news is that even with genetics that seem to be working against us, we aren’t prisoners to our genes.

How Your Genes Contribute to Obesity?

Obesity is truly a global epidemic. As of 2016, more than 650 million people in the world were obese – or 13 percent of the adult population.  Obesity rates have more than doubled since 1980, so it would seem that lifestyle must play a bigger role in obesity than genetics since our genetics can’t have changed that much in 30 years, right? In the U.S. alone, more than one-third of adults are obese.

While genetics themselves aren’t changing, gene expression can. We all have protective and harmful genes in our bodies, and these can be flipped on or off like light switches. The factors that control whether a gene is active or turned off are largely controlled by the environment we live in, our lifestyles, our diets, and our overall health.

Since the 1980s, a lot has changed in our environment and lifestyles with increasing pollution, fast food consumption, stress levels, lack of sleep, and many other factors that could be turning off our protective genes and turning on negative genes, including those associated with obesity. People can have genes that are prone to weight problems, but creating a preventive lifestyle can help offset that risk.

Obesity is rarely only caused by genetics, although some people may be more prone to body fat storage, food cravings, and depressive tendencies that can make a lack of desire to exercise harder to overcome.

For those people, focusing on food quality is more important than exercising more or eating less. This is because the foods that you eat can help to control your genes. Anti-inflammatory foods, like leafy greens and cauliflower, have a protective effect, while pro-inflammatory foods, like breads and sweets, can activate the genes that exacerbate weight issues.

Bottom line: A calorie isn’t a calorie when it comes to eating for weight loss or countering obesity. People can have genes that are prone to weight problems, but creating a preventive lifestyle can help offset that risk.

6 Ways to Lose Weight and Keep It Off for Good

Inflammation is at the core of many epigenetic expressions of genes that can contribute to weight gain or make weight loss hard. When you’re seeking to turn off fat-promoting genes and finding a healthy balance within the body, these factors are essential for maintaining a healthy weight.

1. Engage in Physical Activity

Physical inactivity can take a slight genetic tendency toward obesity and exacerbate it.  The human body is designed to move and be active, and when this doesn’t happen, certain biological processes can stagnate or become inefficient (like metabolism, digestion, and stress hormone regulation), making the body more prone to inflammation.

If you’re prone toward weight problems or struggle with obesity, there’s no way around the fact that movement of some kind is necessary for both weight loss and overall physical health. You don’t have to undertake marathon training or CrossFit to experience positive results, either. Walking for two to three hours a week total can be a great starting point for weight loss, improved digestion, and better sleep – all of which will help improve genetic expression.

Remember: The less you move, the less inclined you’ll be to begin exercising – so keep active!

2. Focus on Gut Health

Research continues to prove that almost everything is tied to the gut, including both weight and genetic expression. The gut microbiome – or the landscape of good and bad bacteria that reside within the intestines – helps to regulate fat storage and weight. The gut is implicated as the starting point in a number of metabolic disorders and the development of weight issues and obesity.

Obesity is characterized by constant, low-grade inflammation which is partially influenced by the bacteria in the gut. When the good bacteria in the gut outnumber the bad, this can have a significant influence on which genes are expressed, and how the overall body functions – including weight, digestion, and metabolic health. Not only can the gut be a major cause of obesity, but it can also be one of the reasons why losing weight can be next to impossible for some.

Not only can the gut be a major cause of obesity, but it can also be one of the reasons why losing weight can be next to impossible for some. Unless the gut bacteria are overhauled by diet and lifestyle changes, attempts to lose weight may be unsuccessful.

Repair damaged tissue in the gut by focusing on high-quality proteins with amino acids, like bone broth and collagen. 

Fermented foods, including kimchi and sauerkraut, and prebiotic foods like artichokes, garlic, onions, and asparagus also help to replenish the good bacteria and ensure that it will continue to proliferate and thrive.

Diets that contain lots of trans fats, artificial flavorings, and sweeteners, and other “junk” or refined foods don’t nourish good gut bacteria, but instead help the bad bacteria to thrive.

This can contribute to food cravings for all of the anti-gut foods you shouldn’t be eating, as well as an inability to shed pounds no matter how closely you count calories. Food quality matters, and unless the food is nourishing your microbiome, it won’t be supporting your weight loss efforts.

3. Get Enough Sleep

It’s impossible to get healthy – and lose weight – if you aren’t getting enough high-quality sleep. Prioritizing a good night’s slumber is an important avenue in weight loss and having healthy genes.

If you have the genes associated with weight problems, lack of good sleep can turn these genes on and further exacerbate the problem. Getting less than seven to nine hours of sleep each night, or sleeping much more than that, can cause alterations in gut bacteria and genetic expression that can influence body weight.

4. Reduce Stress

Constant stress, even at low levels, influences weight and is often associated with obesity.

While it can feel difficult to combat work and home stress, it’s essential to find healthy ways to cope instead of expecting it to disappear. The microbiome can also be related to increased stress if it isn’t healthy, so following the other tips in this section can have a natural impact on reducing stress levels.

Whether you participate in yoga, meditation, or therapy, finding a stress relief outlet that works for you will be a critical component of balancing your weight and changing how your genes express.

5. Drink More Water

While it might seem one of the most common pieces of advice, research shows that overweight individuals are typically not hydrated properly.  This can lead to an inability to shed weight, as well as increased inflammation levels. Dehydration can also influence appetite, cravings, sleep, and even mood.

So how much water do you really need? While the advice to drink six to eight glasses of water per day is widely circulated, there isn’t solid research to back that up.

 More convincing research indicates that gauging hydration level by the color of urine is a better and more individualized approach. Urine should be pale yellow or nearly clear to indicate good hydration. If it is medium to dark yellow, you need more water.

Certain foods or nutrients can alter urine color, like beets or vitamin B12 supplements, but for the most part, urine color is a good gauge of how much water is available to your tissues.

Water and hydration levels can not only influence things like constipation and digestive function, but it can play a role in how your genes and DNA express, making it a critical component of getting your epigenetic expression to be working for you and not against you.

6. Find Supportive Meal Plan Coaching

Need some motivation? Join a coached program or Paleo meal plan group.

Research shows that people who find social support have more success at weight loss than going it alone. Online coached challenges have a strong success rate and have become popular in recent years thanks to convenience and affordability.

While there are thousands of weight loss programs abound on the Internet, finding the right one is crucial to your success. Do they over-promise? They probably will under deliver. Does it sound too good to be true? It probably is.

As someone who was obese for many years and then went on to become a nutritionist, I know that pairing weight loss efforts with a group setting can instantly improve your chances of completing the program and seeing real results.

Watch these 2 videos below –

How to Lose Weight If You’re Genetically Fat 

How to Lose Fat The Right Way (MEN VS WOMEN!)

Written by Aimee McNew

Author Bio:

Aimee McNew is a Certified Nutritionist who specializes in women’s health, thyroid problems, infertility, and digestive wellness. She ate her way back to health using a Paleo diet, lost 80 pounds, and had a healthy baby after numerous miscarriages. She focuses on simple nutrition practices that promote long-lasting results.

A lot of people have gotten results from the Keto diet, and enjoyed the foods that it has to offer. However, many of the people who are following this diet have a hard time finding the recipes that they need, especially ones that are quick and easy to complete.

Fortunately, Kelsey Ale, noticed this problem, and decided to do something about it. She’s found that making recipes in a slow cooker gives you meals which are not only delicious, but also take very little time to make. Mostly you just put a few simple ingredients in the slow cooker, and let it do the rest.

To find out more, click on – Keto Slow Cooker Cookbook

How to Carb Cycle for Fat Loss and Muscle Gain?

 

Click HERE to Discover these 80 Keto-Friendly and Healthy Slow Cooker Recipes

Ever hear of eating carbs to lose weight? If you carb cycle the right way, it’s a powerful fat-loss tool!

Some people swear by a low-carb diet to lose weight, while others eat moderate amounts of carbs and say it works just as well. So which do you choose?

Fortunately, there’s a way you can choose both (and potentially burn even more fat).

This method is called carb cycling. Read on to strategize the best way to use it to boost metabolism.

What Is Carb Cycling?

Carb cycling involves switching between high-carb days, low-carb days, and moderate-carb days throughout the week to encourage fat loss and muscle growth.

The theory is that cycling your carbs helps you lose weight while avoiding the low mood associated with more restrictive low-carb diets.

But does it really work? Let’s dive into the benefits of carb cycling below, and how it can equal big results when it comes to fat loss.

Why Carb Cycling Is Great for Fat Loss

Increases Insulin Sensitivity

Insulin is the hormone responsible for turning the carbs you eat into energy. When you eat a carb-rich meal, insulin picks up the glucose (sugar) molecules from your bloodstream and ushers them into your cells to be burned as fuel. This keeps your blood sugar levels balanced throughout the day.

However, this system can become overworked from the constant intake of too many carbs. Think of it this way: every time you eat a carb-rich meal (but most especially processed carbs and junk food), your body has to release a ton of insulin to keep your blood sugar in check. Over time, your cells essentially “burn out” and become less sensitive to the effects of insulin.

When this happens, excess glucose remains in your bloodstream, since it needs insulin to be able to be used by your cells. Your body now has to get rid of this excess glucose since it’s not being burned off, so what does it do? It stores it as fat.

Luckily, giving your system a break from carbs several times a week can encourage your cells to become more insulin-sensitive once again, which can help your body use carbs more efficiently and store less as fat.

Including a few low-carb days into your week also gives your body a chance to “dip into” its fat stores. This occurs when your body uses up all of the glucose in your bloodstream for energy, but still requires more to power you through your day. When it doesn’t have immediate access to any, it begins to burn fat for fuel.

Boosts Your Metabolism

The idea of forcing your body to burn its fat reserves by constantly restricting carbs is, of course, extremely tempting. The problem with doing this for the long term is that another hormone intricately linked to fat-burning – leptin – becomes disrupted.

Leptin controls your hunger and satiety signals, as well as your metabolic rate.

Leptin levels can become too low when you go on a low-carb diet for a long period of time. This ultimately tells your body that it should conserve energy, so it begins to slow down your metabolism. However, when you eat carbs again, leptin is spiked, which in turn raises your metabolism so that you keep burning fat.

When you carb cycle, you keep your leptin sensitive by not overstimulating it with too many carbs on your low-carb days, while also not slowing down your metabolism by restricting carbs for too long. It’s a win-win.

Helps Preserve Muscle Mass (Which Helps Burn More Fat)

The act of working your muscles during exercise causes them to break down so that they can grow back stronger. Unfortunately, if your calories or carbs are kept too low when you’re training, you can prevent your muscles from growing. This is because muscles require fuel, mainly in the form of glycogen from carbohydrates, in order to grow.

When your muscles have this fuel and you begin to develop more lean tissue, you’ll naturally burn more calories throughout the day. This is why the high-carb days in your carb cycle will overlap with more intense training days – so that your muscles have the nutrients they need to develop.

How to Carb Cycle for Fat Loss and Muscle Gain?

Carb cycling is a fairly straightforward process. Essentially, you want to focus on having your higher-carb foods on hard workout days, and your lower-carb foods on rest days or light workout days.

On high-carb days, focus on eating starchy veggies at every meal. Your intake can range from 150 to 250 grams. Focus on filling each of your meals with a serving or two of starchy roots and tubers like sweet potatoes, carrots, plantains, and fruits, rounded out with proteins and greens.

High-carb days should also be your most intense workout days. Think resistance training, high-intensity interval training, or sprint workouts.

On moderate-carb days, include a starchy vegetable with your breakfast and keep the rest of the day low-carb. Do a moderate hike or go for a light jog!

On low-carb days, try not to exceed 50 to 75 grams, sticking mostly to higher-fat foods like avocado, green veggies, and a protein at each meal. Eat protein at every meal (grass-fed meats and fish) and lots of non-starchy veggies.

Example: Try a large green salad topped with avocado, walnuts, sunflower seeds, olive oil dressing, and a large wild salmon fillet, followed by a square of 80 percent dark chocolate.

Low-carb and moderate-carb day workouts should be lighter workouts: easy hikes, yoga, or any other low-intensity activity.

On your no-carb day, stick to 30 grams of carbs or less. Focus on leafy greens and other low-carb foods on the list below.

Your no-carb day should be your rest-and-recover day.

Low and High-Carb Food Examples

High-carb foods include starchy roots and fruits like sweet potato, taro root, carrots, apples, oranges, bananas, plantains, parsnips, chestnuts, pineapple, and winter squash.

Low-carb foods include all leafy greens like kale and spinach, avocado, peppers, broccoli, cauliflower, olive and coconut oils, nuts, seeds, meats, and fish.

Sample Carb Cycling Week

Day One: Low-Carb Day

Day Two: High-Carb Day

Day Three: Low-Carb Day

Day Four: Moderate-Carb Day

Day Five: High-Carb Day

Day Six: Moderate-Carb Day

Day Seven: No-Carb Day (Rest Day)

As you can see, cycling your carbs is relatively simple once you know exactly what to eat on rest and workout days. Now there’s only one thing left to do: get to browsing our recipe pages for meal ideas!

Watch these videos below for low-carb, moderate-carb and high-carb recipe ideas

6 Healthy Low Carb Recipes for Weight Loss

High Carb Recipes

Low to Moderate Carb Meal Plan for Weight Loss

Written by Megan Patiry

Author Bio:

Megan is an inquisitive nutrition and wellness writer harboring an editorial love affair with the decadent and the nutritious. She is a dedicated researcher in all areas of ancestral health, a certified specialist in fitness nutrition, personal trainer, and professional almond milk latte addict.

A lot of people have gotten results from the Keto diet, and enjoyed the foods that it has to offer. However, many of the people who are following this diet have a hard time finding the recipes that they need, especially ones that are quick and easy to complete.

Fortunately, Kelsey Ale, noticed this problem, and decided to do something about it. She’s found that making recipes in a slow cooker gives you meals which are not only delicious, but also take very little time to make. Mostly you just put a few simple ingredients in the slow cooker, and let it do the rest.

To find out more, click on – Keto Slow Cooker Cookbook